Madurai Somasundaram

Music by the inimitable vocalist in connection with his birth anniversary on February 9

Hailing from the Chittoor Subramania Pillai school, Madurai Somasundaram, or Somu, as everyone, including himself, referred to him, brought incredible energy and passion into every concert. His concerts invariably lasted three or fours hours, and he was always featured with top-notch accompaniment of stalwarts like Lalgudi Jayaraman, M S Gopalakrishnan, M Chandrasekharan, Palghat Raghu, Guruvayur Dorai, Umayalpuram Sivaraman and Vellore Ramabhadran. Madurai Somu drew audiences in the thousands. His effortless essay of ragas and the wonderful manner in which engaged with his accompanists and with the audience made him the quintessential musician of the concert stage. He also brought 'full bench' concerts back into vogue, and he usually performed with a percussion complement that included mridangam, ghatam, kanjira and morsing.